Siege of Taganrog

Battle context

The Anglo-French naval operations in the Sea of Azov from June to November 1855, sometimes termed the Siege of Taganrog in Russian histories, were part of a deliberate strategy to sever the supply lines sustaining the main Russian army during the Crimean War. Taganrog functioned as a major Russian logistical hub, and the destruction of its military depot in June 1855 was one in a series of coordinated attacks on Russian supply bases throughout the region. By degrading these nodes, British and French forces sought to compound pressure on Russian forces already engaged at Sevastopol and elsewhere. Rostov-on-Don, another significant base, escaped attack only because shoals in the sea prevented available warships from reaching it, illustrating the extent to which geography shaped the operational limits of the campaign. The operations demonstrated how naval power in a secondary theater could be applied systematically against an army's logistical infrastructure rather than its field formations.